Trump looking for ‘decisive blow’

New York billionaire Donald Trump expects Republican primary voters who cast ballots on Tuesday in Indiana to make him unstoppable in his march toward the party’s presidential nomination.

"If we win Indiana, it’s over," Trump told a cheering crowd in Terre Haute, Indiana, on the eve of the vote.

The blunt-spoken real estate mogul holds a double-digit polling lead over US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has been campaigning in the Midwestern state almost nonstop since mid-April.

Cruz has trumpeted Indiana, one of the last big states left in the fight to get onto the Nov 8 presidential ballot, as his golden moment to stop Trump and force a brokered nomination at the party’s July convention. But it appears to be shaping up as his Waterloo.

Fresh off a sweep of five Northeastern states last week, Trump wants a win in Indiana to put him within reach of the 1,237 delegates required to lock up the Republican nomination before the convention.

Trump now has 996 delegates, compared with 565 for Cruz and 153 for Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to The Associated Press.

Another 57 delegates are up for grabs in Indiana, a state that has voted Republican in nine of the last 10 presidential elections.

Top Trump aide Corey Lewandowski told CNN on Tuesday the campaign expected to win more than required number of delegates - 1,300 to 1,400.Cruz vowed on Monday to "compete to the end" but a loss in Indiana would be particularly crushing for the senator, who has argued that his brand of religious conservatism is a natural draw for heartland Republicans.

He won the endorsement of conservative Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Cruz had hoped for smoother sailing in Indiana after he and John Kasich reached a "stop-Trump" deal in which Kasich would steer clear of the state while Cruz would do likewise in Oregon and New Mexico.

But the waters are looking choppier for Cruz, with the senator losing considerable ground against Trump in opinion polls as voting has neared.